In Search of Rogue
by ddreamer4e
Summary: Buck and Wilma go to Oros to find a notorious criminal
1. Chapter 1

"Wilma! NO", Buck screamed. But it was too late. He watched as the ground around her exploded sending Col. Wilma Derring into oblivion. A split second later, Buck felt a searing pain in his head and then nothing.

They had come to the planet Oros, he and Wilma, in search of Rogue, leader of a vicious band of pirates that was wrecking havoc on the trading ships throughout the galaxy. Because of Rogue's band, Terrans in New Chicago and elsewhere were in danger of running low on food and fuel. The intelligence information had been spotty at best. There were some that believed that Oros was the home base. Others felt that the planet was too far removed from the regular shipping lanes to be effective. Buck had been in Dr. Huer's office while the debate had raged among the members of the ruling Federation. Buck was bored by all this discussion. He preferred action. After what seemed like hours, Wilma had suggested sending in low level craft to scan the planet surface with heat sensors.

"Isn't that going to be a waste of time, Wilma? Why bother if you guys are not sure that Rogue and his henchmen are there? Why not send in a raiding party and make sure," Buck had said.

"Because it's that important that we follow up on every lead as quickly as possible. The time it would take to marshal the kind of force you are suggesting will guarantee that if Rogue is on Oros now, he won't be by the time we arrive," was Wilma's measured reply.

"We must also keep in mind the political implications of sending in forces to Oros. It is after all in the neutral zone. The Pic people could interpret that as an act of aggression," Put in Dr. Theopolis.

"I thought the Pic's were neutral" Buck said "What happens if Rogue is using Oros as his base?"

"They are neutral, and they carefully guard their neutrality. But if we can show them solid evidence, hopefully we can prevent a diplomatic issue."

" I thought we had the evidence" Buck protested.

"Buck, what we have doesn't even convince all of us in this room, I don't think I would want to present it to the Pic Congress," Wilma said quietly.

It was finally decided, two pilots would make the trip to Oros in A7's.

It fell to Col. Derring to make the necessary arrangement to have the ships made flight ready.

As the meeting broke up, Buck approached Wilma, " so when do we leave?" He asked.

"Why, are you volunteering?"  
"Why not, at least it is taking action."

"It will take at a few hours to get the ships readied and onto the hanger deck. We should be ready to take off by oh eight hundred hours tomorrow," she replied. And with a twinkle in her eye, she added, "that will give you time to say good-bye to your girl friend"

On the flight deck, Wilma waited for Buck to arrive while she calmly went over the preflight checklist with Major Terry O'Malley. The major was a veteran pilot who had been in charge of the flight deck for some time.

Buck arrived ready to go.

"Is the preflight done?" he asked

"Just about, we should be ready to take off in about 10 minutes"

"Explain to me again, why are we taking these old crates? They must have been in mothballs forever."

Wilma looked at him quizzically, "Mothballs? Oh you mean, out of service, yes we haven't used the A7 for a number of years but they will be perfect for this mission," Wilma replied as she returned to her checklist.

"But they are so slow"

"Exactly, low and slow, we make one slow pass at a low altitude and then out. We get in and get out before anybody knows we were there."

"Will you two stop bickering and get ready for take off please, I need to have this area ready for Alpha patrol group landing shortly." Put in O'Malley.

"Right, let's go then," said Buck as he entered the ship on the right through the open ramp door.

Wilma shook her head, picked up her flight helmet and entered the craft on the left.

Soon they were out of the hanger deck through the atmosphere and heading for the stargate. Once through the stargate it was only a matter of an hour or two until they entered Oros' atmosphere. Oros was a hardscapple planet, with a scarcity of vegetation and an abundance of rocks and boulders.

The two ships crisscrossed the areas of the planet that the intelligence and scientific committees felt were the most likely hiding places for the pirates. They held their craft only a few thousand feet above the surface.

As they flew over a clear area their instruments registered elevated heat and ion levels, usually an indicator that there was human activity. However the levels were not high enough to indicate that humans were currently in the area.

" I don't know Buck these readings are very ambiguous. I wish it was clear cut."

"Suggest we try another fly by, we should have enough fuel for one more" was Buck's answer.

"You're right, we need to be sure, once more around."

The readings on the second trip were almost identical to the first, which in itself was strange. If there were humans on the planet the readings would have been much stronger, and if they had been there and left the readings would decrease with each passing minute.

"I think we should land and investigate ourselves Wilma. I wouldn't want to send a raiding party here for nothing," Said Buck.

"I don't know, that's not what our mission." She relied

"Look, it's more important that we find out what's going on. We don't want to send in troops without knowing for sure if Rogue is here, but we can't risk not letting him slip through our fingers if he is."

"You were paying attention in the meeting after all, I'm impressed. Your right, I just get a real bad feeling about this."

"I thought I was the one who always acted on my hunches, not you. You're always the planning guru," Buck said.

"Guru, what, oh whatever. Readouts say that there is a small clearing about six grids to the left that should be large enough to land."

"Roger, six grids over, got it on screen, I'll go in first since I'm closer Col. If that alright with you" Buck said in mock earnestness.

With a sigh Wilma replied "Roger"

They brought their craft down and carefully slid out of the side hatches. They met in the lee of the lead ship. Everything around them was quiet, eerily quiet.

"Stay close behind me" Buck started to say

"Hey wait a minute, why should you go first, I don't need to be"

Buck cut her off. With his finger to his lips he said "You need to watch the readings on the scanner, and I'll keep a watch. Just poke me if the readings change at all."

As they came into another clearing they saw what looked like an old lean-to. Smoke appeared to be billowing up lightly from the other side of the hut.

"Something just doesn't look right" Buck whispered as they stopped. He motioned to move to the left.

They circled around to try and get a better view but there were too many boulders in the way. Wilma nudged Buck, and pointed to the scanner, the readings had not changed at all.

"I'm going back to the ship for the gas analyzer," Wilma whispered in Buck ear.

She turned around and started to pick her way through the rocks toward the ship, leaving Buck staring at the hut. Suddenly, he realized what had not made sense. The "smoke" was rising straight up; it wasn't swirling in the light breeze.

It was a trap.

He turned around to alert Wilma when the unthinkable happened; everything exploded. 


	2. Chapter 2

Buck became aware of a searing pain in his head, centered somewhere behind his eyes. He had no idea how long he had been out. Slowly he started to move his limbs, tried to sit up. That's when the memory flooded back. Wilma was dead. He collapsed back into oblivion.

Something was wet, rain? He opened his eyes slowly, just a little. He could just make out the image of Wilma, bending over him. It was her tears he felt on his check. His eyes flew open, even as he struggled to sit up.

"Take it easy Buck, not so fast."

"Are you all right? I thought you were a goner."

"I will be soon, I'm not sure if it's my legs or back, but I won't be able to get back to our ships," Wilma told him. "How badly are you hurt?"

"My head is killing me," Buck said. "I don't think I can fly, I can barely see, but I think my legs and arms work fine." He told her as he managed to sit up. He stretched his back, legs and arms.

"Yep all parts working, lets get you back to one of the ships. At least you maybe you can get back to New Chicago"  
"I can't go and leave you here."

"We'll take one step at a time." And with that Buck managed to get to his feet. Slowly they made their way the short distance to the spacecraft. Buck supporting, half-carrying Wilma. The effort took a lot out of him. He helped Wilma lean against the closest ship and then he collapsed in the open doorway.

"Buck, Buck, come on, we're almost there." She tried to rouse him.

"No, I won't make it. You go on without me."

"Not a chance. Can you slide into the back of this ship? I should be able to get into the pilot seat."

"Even if you could, it would be too heavy to take off. Wait a minute and I'll get out of..." Buck started to say, but he collapsed backwards into the ship, his torso inside, his legs hanging down on the entrance ramp.

"I'm not leaving you here Buck. If we die, we die together," Wilma told the unconscious man. She rested against the side of the ship for several minutes, mentally reviewing her options. "Never know till I try," she finally said, more to her self than to Buck. Slowly, painfully she managed to climb over Buck's body and into the interior of the spacecraft. She crawled into the cockpit and hit the switch to raise the side door. As it slowly came into the closed position, it brought Buck's legs into the ship. Wilma slid back to where Buck was lying and pulled him further into the back of the ship, with his back against the bulkhead.  
"Never get off the ground," he murmured.

"I have to try Buck, I have to try."

Wilma crawled into the pilot seat and started the small engine used for maneuvering the craft on the ground. She taxied the ship forward, closer to a large outcropping of rocks and swung the ship around so that the tail and exhaust were right up against the solid rock.

Wilma took a deep breath, and fired the main rockets, but held the wheel brakes on. The ship shook violently as she increased the power. She held the craft against the rock for a few seconds and then released the brakes. The recoil from the exhaust catapulted the ship into the air with so much force it escaped the planet's gravity.

Once in space, Col. Deering used every trick she had ever learned to conserve fuel. She used her main engines on low speed and her maneuvering thrusters to keep her on course and moving towards home.

"Come on, just get us through the stargate," she told the old ship. She wished she could check on Buck in the rear of the cockpit, but didn't dare leave the controls. It took all of her dwindling strength to maintain her course.

Once they were through the stargate, though, the main rocket engines were almost out of fuel.

"New Chicago Air Command, come in New Chicago. This is Col. Deering in cruiser Apple77, come in New Chicago."

"Apple77 we have you on our screen" came the reply. Then in a different voice, "Colonel. This is O'Malley... we only see one craft" and he left the sentence hang.

"Capt. Rogers is with me."

"With you, both of you in the one ship, isn't that..."

Wilma cuts him off:" I am critically low on fuel and need you to lock the tractor beam on the co-ordinates I will transmit you."  
"Col. I mean no disrespect, but the beam will not be strong enough to bring you in to the landing deck from that distance." O'Malley said.

"I realize that Major, but any boost I can get from the beam will help me conserve what little fuel and thruster power I have. Hopefully enough to land. Please hurry, we are wasting time. I will transmit the co-ordinates to the computer now."

"Co-ordinates received, beam... locked on" came the reply. "Colonel, do we need a medical team available when you land?" O'Malley asked.

"Yes, two," was Wilma's terse answer.

What followed was over an hour of very tense work, as Wilma struggled to get the ship aligned, and the ground crew worked to throw every scrap of power they could into the tractor beam. But the closer she got to New Chicago, the more help she got from the tractor beam.

"New Chicago Air Command, come in air command" Wilma radioed once she was ready to start her re-entry maneuver. "Air Command, I need O'Malley, is he there"  
"Right here Colonel, are you ready for re-entry sequence? I have you about 15 minutes out."  
"O'Malley, I have no reverse thrusters left, and I doubt I have the strength in my legs to use my wheel brakes."  
"Oh my."  
"Looks like we will be trying out Captain Rogers, tail hook contraption earlier than planned. How long will it take you to get it set up?"

"About 3 minutes less than we have. I'll get it deployed immediately" O'Malley replied. " I wish we had more test runs with the Captain on it."

"O'Malley, once you have the tail hook device in place, I want the entire flight deck cleared. Every body out of the way just in case."  
"Colonel, we will need somebody on hand to operate the tail hook."

Wilma was quiet for a couple of minutes. She hated risking lives needlessly. She had never shared Buck and O'Malley's enthusiasm for the safety device, but she was always open to anything new things.

"Alright, two volunteers" she replied.

"Roger."

As Wilma started to go through her re-entry checklist, she could hear Buck moaning in the rear of the ship.

"I know, I know, I'm working on it. I just wish you had been able to find better specs for this contraption of yours, I am afraid I still don't understand about the Navy and Air Force differences. Here's hoping O'Malley can get it deployed," she said aloud. She wasn't sure if Buck could hear and understand her, but she felt better thinking he could.

"Starting re-entry now. We should be into the atmosphere shortly. Lowering landing wheels."

"Roger, we copy Colonel."

"Apple77, we are adjusting trajectory 3 degrees, we have you lined up and ready. Tail hook will be in place with sufficient staff to operate. The hydraulic pistons may not be enough to do the job, so we have extra staff on hand to help with additional weight. And two emergency medical teams standing by." Said O'Malley.

"O'Malley, I don't want anybody on the flight deck that doesn't need to be there. Only a couple of volunteers."

" Everybody volunteered once they heard, and I can't pick just two," he replied. Then he added "Good Luck Colonel."

"Cutting all power here, New Chicago and lowering wheels. We are relying totally on external forces."

"Reducing tractor beam power, apply repulse thrust."

With that the ship carrying Buck and Wilma entered the flight deck traveling a high rate of sped. Wilma used what strength she had left to hold the ship straight. She felt the jerk violently as the tail hook grabbed the landing wheels under the ship. She mentally noted that there were at least 30 people on the flight deck as she skidded sidewise to a halt. The tail hook had worked.


	3. Chapter 3

The room was dark as Wilma Derring entered. The only light from the displays on the numerous monitors that Buck Rogers was hooked to. In the background a mechanical voice droned on, reciting the alphabet, counting to 100. As she advanced to the bed, leaning on a cane for support, she looked down and said quietly, "Well looks like we survived another close call. But I will tell you, I think this one was a little too close for comfort."

While Wilma was standing by Buck's bed, Dr. Susan Howard entered the room. Dr. Howard is head of the clinic, as well as being Wilma's oldest and closest friend.

"I should have known I would find you here."  
"Is he going to be alright, he looks so still," Wilma asks.

"Oh, I think he will recover completely. Right now we have him heavily sedated, to give his brain and nervous system time to recover."  
"What's with the voice?" Wilma asked as she pointed upwards towards the ceiling where the sound came from.

"While he is being held under the sedation, it's important for his brain to have stimulation, that's all."  
"Well I doubt that this particular voice is very stimulating for him. While I think it is female, I doubt Buck here would find her very interesting" Wilma said with a chuckle. "Why don't I stay with him for a while and talk to him."  
"That will help him, but not you. You just had surgery on your back, I don't want you to strain yourself."

"Don't worry so much Sue, you have done your usual wonderful job, putting me back together."

Sue Howard sighed, "Yes only you are making it harder and harder all the time." But Susan knew she wouldn't win the argument. "Okay, but at least let me get you a chair to sit in, it will take the strain off of your back."

Susan brought forward a chair and set it down next to the bed. She flipped the switch that silenced the mechanical voice and quietly left the room.

"Well Buck, where should I begin. I am sure you will want to know the outcome of our trip to Oros." And with that Wilma settled down in the chair next to Buck's bed.

About two hours later, Dr. Howard returned to the room. Wilma was sitting quietly by the bed. Dr. Howard checked the monitors and the small handheld scanner she had brought with her, nodding occasionally.

"Well? What do your instrument say?" Wilma asked

"His body seems to be fully recovered. All brain and nervous systems are functioning well. You were right, your voice was much more stimulating and pleasant than old Gertie here. It seems he owes you a great big thank you." Replied Susan.

"I doubt he even knows I am here. But that is good news." Wilma said

"Since he is sound asleep right now, I think we had better leave him alone. Come on I want to run one more scan on your back." 

It was two days later that Buck stood outside the door to Wilma Derring's unit. He stood still for several minutes, marshalling his thoughts, then pushed the button to announce his presence.

Inside the unit, Wilma was reviewing supply lists and was surprised to hear Buck Rogers named as her visitor. After a moment's hesitation, Wilma said "Enter" and the door opened to let Buck in.

"Hi Buck, how are you feeling?" Wilma asked. "I didn't think you would be getting out of sick bay for at least a day or two."

"Oh, you know me, sick bay isn't my kind of place. I guess I was so restless that Dr. Howard was glad to get rid of me." He said with his boyish grin.

"So what bring you here this evening. I would have thought you would be with your girlfriend Raylyn?" Wilma said as she turned back to the work on the desk in front of her.

"Actually, I haven't seen Raylyn in a couple of months" Buck said.

Wilma turned back to face Buck. He was standing with his hands in his pockets rocking back and forth on his heels.

"I'm sorry to hear that. I know you had said you really liked her, she reminded you of a friend you knew in Houston."

"Don't be sorry. She was like all the rest; they just wanted to say they had dated "the old man"

Wilma was surprised to hear Buck talk like that.

"Buck I am sure you are being far too pessimistic" Wilma started to say but Buck cut her off.

"No, I am being realistic. Most of the women I have dated, and most of the people who want me to attend their functions are only interested in the 500 year old man. They don't give a crap about me as a person, just the celebrity. Everyone except you."

There were a couple of moments of silence. Wilma had no idea what Buck was leading too. She found herself holding her breath.

"I don't usually have this much trouble talking to a woman." Buck said after the pause. " No, you are my lifesaver"

"Buck, if you feel you owe me anything because you think I saved your life on Oros" Wilma started to say.

"Oh you saved my life, but I don't mean on Oros or in sick bay later on"

Wilma was startled, she really didn't think Buck knew she had been at his bedside. She was embarrassed that he might remember what she had talked about.

"No you saved my life the first time you sent me away on a mission on my own. You saved my life the first time you asked me for my opinion." He added with a rueful smile, "You didn't follow my advice, but at least you asked. You saved my life when you introduced me to your friends. When you introduced me as just plain Buck Rogers, without adding the 500 year old guy." Buck had been walking forward as he spoke. He was standing right in front of Wilma when he had finished. He took his hands out of his pockets and gently put them on her arms.

"Buck, ..

What do you think she says?


End file.
